2026-27 Team Developments: Trades / Free Agents / News / Rumors / Ideas

I think most here would like to keep 1 but it’s hard to keep both and improve the team at C and the wing. If we can’t upgrade to a 2-way, I’d bring them both back and see how things shake out at the trade deadline.

 

this forum clearly underrates Rui for some reason.

Rui averaged 20ppg against OKC, same as your boy Reaves, but on a much higher efficiency, like night and day.

He shot 57% from 3 in both series. Last year, he shot 48% in the series against Minny

I understand he sucked in the regular season, but we need shooters you can rely on come the playoffs, and he's shown to be very reliable.

I'm hoping we keep him and Lebron, who were our most consistent bucket-getters these playoffs.

 

so, i shall respond with some stuff that i don't really believe and is just me being a contrarian j******, and some stuff that i do believe. i'll let you choose which is which.

• counterpoint: we "built" nothing. we built a title team around lebron and AD, and then just scrambled our a**** off for years after the westbrook debacle. the luka trade delayed what was going to be a full nuclear teardown, imo.

if we show up with the same team next year, we're multiple years away, and potentially backed into a corner if we give multiple years to anyone. also, lebron is 42.

luka will get a supermax in perpetuity. reaves only will if we've had some serious success. if that's true, and we can't build with that strategy, he'll be worth something on the trade market.

only takes one. this "ten year window" s*** is hilarious to me. three year windows, max. so much happens. remember when ja morant was untradeable in the opposite direction? that was 4 years ago.

your rebuttal is: "yeah, that's my point", and mine is: last year's team was not very close. either okc or SA smashes them to bits by overwhelming them athletically. as much as i claim the knicks are proof positive that we can build a contender, they also had high quality two-way guys at every spot that wasn't their superstars. run-it-back brings us nothing close to this.

1-2 years we'll know if thiero or carr are legit. right now, we have moved none of our future assets past what it took to get luka.

also: the asset to start again is the cap space. chicago got claxton into their cap space. but they had to let other possibilities go to make that possible.

here's my actual feeling: if the 26 offseason was the thing, and the thing was just extending the 4th place team from last year at higher prices, you need to be fired. hard.

and i just threw up in my mouth because my first instinct is to agree with this. old habits die hard.

 

Running it back is a failure. Period.

Tough decisions have to be made. The only guy that should return is Smart — and even then, he can't be in your top 6. If he's your 9th best player, you've upgraded. Some of these pieces just don't belong where they are. On top of that, you had like $35M sitting on the bench last year for various reasons — that's inexcusable.

This is the one year they can actually do something impactful, and that window is Reaves' cap hold. Do what needs to be done now. Once you move beyond this offseason, the flexibility disappears — Luka and Austin are going to eat up roughly 55% of your cap space, and team building gets significantly harder from there.

Yeah, the cap is projected to go up around 10% a year, but as Darius pointed out it only went up about 9% this year — so every dollar matters. You develop your youth on cheap contracts and you go hunting for gems on two-way and Exhibit 10 deals.

Get creative this summer. Because after this, you won't have the flexibility to.

 

The proof of concept wasn’t shown against a 7,6” specimen like Wemby. We have to be proactive.

I see your points. I’m not taking Turner over Ayton. And Ayton has skillset you need post play in the playoffs. Gafford is good protrolling the pain and Lob. I can get that from Robert Williams or Mitch Rob.

give me Ayton/Robert Williams.

 

Yeah that’s what I said.

 

brilliant thinking Abeer.

 

During Bill Russell's career, he was in a league that had as low as 8 teams and as many as 14 teams.

 

dude makes big country Reaves look like chucky Atkins. Lol.

 

well, it wasn't really my idea. i just agreed with it and hoped mavs management would.

my only quibble here is that rui is played like a 6th man, and that's maybe an appropriate slotting. he's just not a great fit here. maybe if lebron left, you can slide rui into the starting 4 spot, but it's still not ideal, as you run into the same issue you do with lebron/luka--you can only have one secondary/rover forward in the starting lineup. at least one of your wing-sized players must be able to guard wings credibly. in fairness, both luka and rui can guard some wings credibly, but here i mean all wings except all stars (whom no one can guard anyway).

you've got to protect luka on defense, not only because he isn't great, but because he carries your entire load on the other end. teams have done this with lesser centerpieces like harden and SGA. we can do it with luka. just not with lebron/rui as the other forwards.

 

3/38 means those injuries are for real real, imo. that's sub-mle.

edit: i'm also starting to wonder if we need to zag in a serious way. with the league all going big or going home, there's a dantoni suns moment to be had, and ol' jj is just the guy to enthusiastically lead it.

 

Ayton 12 and 7 for 8 million. I’m just saying.

 

Who in the hell are we are supposed to sign through free agency that are really any better than the free agents we already have? Be specific. I can understand 1 or 2 guys but post this brand new roster you have dreamed up.

ANYONE POST THIS DREAM ROSTER PLZ!!!

 

Yeah I can’t understand why so many people are just claiming to run it back again. Do they not understand what the future flexibility looks like? This is essentially your last offseason to make major moves with AR max kicking in. Luka is also going to be 28. 28. Time is ticking and the rubber meets the road here.

 

not sure it's there, tbh. if you were willing to truly blow it up, you could make some bonkers RFA offers to duren or watson and still have enough left for an ellis or grimes type.

but i think folks are underselling how screwed you can be if you bring back the boys and you look the same as you did last year, but with more years and money on the contracts.

like, yeah, rui will look GREAT on the spurs for 4/65. but if he's here on 4/65, we're having to pay a 1st to get off him. context matters.

 

Post your dream roster then!

 

what's yours? to bring back everyone, we'd likely have to use a chunk of the mle to retain smart, leaving no room to add anyone. so it's last year + cameron carr.

we're kind of seeing that the vando/knecht trade market is the same as the gabe/rui trade market, etc., so you can't just say we're going to trade vando for jarrett allen or something.

 

Yeah and if Luka and Austin were available we don't know where that team goes. Luka is supposed to be a SUPERSTAR , Austin is All Star caliber..that s*** makes a difference doesn't it? We won 53 games in the West with what we had.

 

We can add a Grimes or Ellis and a Robinson or Timelord to what we already have. What's the problem? We aint stealing nobody’s RFA period.